Fate of Southern Green Stink Bug Eggs in Bt Cotton, Round-up Ready Cotton, Soybeans, and Peanuts

There is a need to determine the life history of stink bugs in major crops in the area.  To this end, we investigated Southern green stink bug egg mortality by placing sentinel egg masses in plots of soybean, Bt-cotton, Round up Ready (RR) cotton and peanut plants. Egg masses were photographed at placement and at 12h, 24h and 48h after placement to help evaluate relative predation and parasitism in the crops. Predation of eggs was high in peanuts (74%) and soybeans (65%), and similarly lower in Bt (26%) and RR cotton (21%).  Most egg predation in cotton and peanuts was attributable to fire ants. Parasitism was low overall but higher in the cotton (8%) than the peanuts (0.17%) and soybeans (2%).  Future studies will continue to investigate relative egg mortality as well as reproduction and longevity in the various crops used by these species.